Vargas emerges as women’s World Championship best scorer, spiker and server

Turkiye’s Cuban-born star opposite Melissa Vargas not only claimed a spot on the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Dream Team as the tournament’s best opposite, but also stood out on top of as many as three of the individual statistical rankings. Vargas was the best scorer, the best attacker and one of the three best servers of the competition. Poland’s Martyna Czyrnianska and France’s Iman Ndiaye shared the first place in the best servers chart with Vargas. Brazil’s Julia Kudiess emerged as the best blocker. Italy’s Monica De Gennaro came out on top of the best diggers ranking, while Japan’s Nanami Seki and Mayu Ishikawa topped the charts for best setter and for best receiver, respectively.

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Melissa Vargas’s point-making prowess shined particularly bright in her team’s last two matches of the World Championship and that helped her surpass some other brilliant contenders on the way to the first place in the best scorers individual ranking. She nailed 28 points in Turkiye’s semifinal against Japan and her tournament-high of 33 points was registered in the final against Italy. Overall, Vargas tallied 151 points to stand on top of the ranking nine points clear of second-ranked Gabriela Guimaraes (Gabi) of Brazil and 10 points clear of third-ranked Mayu Ishikawa of Japan.

With 134 spike kills on record, Vargas was also the leader of the best attackers chart, followed by the two Dream Team outside hitters – Ishikawa with 128 and Gabi with 125.

The Turkish star’s tally also included 10 aces. As many as four of those were delivered during the World Championship title match against Italy to help Vargas catch up with Poland’s 21-year-old Martyna Czyrnianska and France’s Iman Ndiaye, also with 10 aces apiece, on top of the best servers ranking.

The best blockers chart was clearly dominated by Brazilian players. 22-year-old Julia Kudiess put up an impressive total of 30 kill blocks. She mounted as many as nine in the semifinal against Italy alone. Brazil’s other middle blocker Diana Alecrim finished runner-up in this ranking with 27 kill blocks. Their Turkish counterparts lined up right below them in the table – Dream Teamer Eda Erdem with 20 kill blocks, and Zehra Gunes with 19.

New world champions Italy also had a representative among the chart-toppers. While earning her well-deserved place on the Dream Team, experienced Monica De Gennaro rose to the top of the best diggers ranking. The 38-year-old libero signed off with 81 digs, eight more than the second best defender, Mayu Ishikawa. Dutch libero Florien Reesink and Turkish libero Gizem Orge shared the third place in this table, with 69 digs each.

Japanese captain Ishikawa, who finished first or second runner-up in three of the above-mentioned rankings, also topped one of the charts herself. She finished first in the best receivers ranking, registering as many as 73 successful receptions leaving Brazilian outside Julia Bergmann behind with 65, while Gabi and France’s charismatic leader Helena Cazaute took a joint third place with 64 apiece.

Japanese setter Nanami Seki had been an excellent playmaker throughout the World Championship, but only in the team’s last match she managed to overtake her Dutch counterpart Sarah van Aalen for the first place in the best setters chart. Seki accumulated 231 successful sets, against 229 from van Aalen, who had to leave the tournament after the quarterfinals, where the Netherlands lost to Japan in the tie-breaker. The two left everybody else far behind. The next best setter was Turkiye’s Cansu Ozbay, with “only” 151 successful sets.

2025 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship: all results

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